Vaavu

Vaavu is the smallest inhabited atoll in the country by population, and that is the whole point of coming. It lies south-east of Malé, reached by a long public ferry run or a shorter speedboat transfer, and it has none of the density of Kaafu.

Fulidhoo is the island covered here — four hundred people, a few sand streets, and stingrays that come into the shallows by the jetty most evenings. Vaavu's channels are known among divers for strong currents and the sharks that patrol them, which is a very different proposition from the calm-lagoon version of the Maldives.